Invrea lies between Cogoletto and Varazze some 30km west of Genoa. Lear spent the winter of 1864-5 on the Riviera, based at Nice. In December he and Giorgio walked along the coast to Genoa, covering between sixteen and twenty miles a day. It was bitterly cold, and on the whole he was disappointed with what he saw - 'obscure torrents, and unpleasant villages: roaring sea:- but no peacock line? bays nor any other pleasure'. They returned to Nice on New Year's Eve (see Noakes, Edward Lear: The Life of a Wanderer, 1968, p. 204). For another view on the Italian Riviera, drawn the next day, see lot 138